My Hero Romance: Chapter Eleven
{| Chapter Eleven Having a superhero over at your house for dinner wasn't usually something that happened in the Sato household, despite the house belonging to Katsuko. She tried hard to clean up the place while her mother cooked but with seven kittens and a grumpy mama cat who was in the mood for destruction, it simply couldn't be done in the time set. Toshinori was at the door faster than Katsuko expected and she cursed under her breath before standing up with a kitten in her hand to go open the door. "Oh, hi." She stepped asides to let him in, but couldn't help but chuckle at the look he was giving the kitten. "This is Checkers. His siblings are over there with their mom, Beanie. There's six other kittens. Their names are Tinsel, Eggnog, Gracie, Mochi, Moshi, and Blueberry." Toshinori pretty much spent a good portion of the time playing with the kittens until dinner was ready. Even then, the kittens were wanting attention and affection from him. "I'm surprised, Toshinori, you've somehow managed to get Beanie to love you." Katsuko chuckled gently, glancing at the mama cat who was sitting in his lap. "Beanie normally hates everyone, including me. I'm glad she found a human to love." Emilie rolled her eyes and placed the food in front of each of them. Pork Cutlet Bowls. Katsuko wasn't always a picky eater, but dear god did she love those things. Pork cutlet bowls were a gift from the heavens. "You know, Toshinori, Katsuko's in need of a man." Emilie winked, gesturing at her daughter who, like many daughters do in this situation, wanted to die. "Oh my god." She rubbed her temples and then her forehead before sighing heavily. "I wish I didn't leave that hospital. Mom, stop trying to play matchmaker. I swear to God, I am so sorry Toshinori." Despite being heavily embarrassed to the point of no words, Toshinori found this rather amusing. He found Emilie to be a rather amusing woman even if she only wanted what was best for Katsuko. "You aren't getting any younger, Katy. I expect grandbabies." She rolled her eyes before pouring them each a glass of water. "You have one. She's sitting on Toshinori. I don't have the time nor the money...or patience, for a baby." She shook her head. "But let's move on from that and into actually eating our food." Toshinori bit back a small smile and started eating his food in silence to avoid any awkward questions from Emilie. Other than that, to see Katsuko in such a carefree state made him a tad bit happy inside, mostly because he never would have gotten the chance to see her like this had it not been for her will to survive. A little later after dinner, Emilie had to leave for her hotel due to her plane leaving early the next morning. They said their goodbyes and she left. Toshinori and Katsuko were left together with an awkward silence overtaking the apartment. "I'm, uh, I'm sorry about my mom." Katsuko put the last of the dishes away in the sink. "She gets excited like that when I have guys over, but she's a pretty cool mom. I mean, she's my only mom so that's kinda biased but still." "It's fine. I didn't mind." He held a toy over Beanie's head, smiling as he watched her struggle over her own fat to get it. "If I wake up one night and someone broke into my house, I'm just going to assume it's you trying to pet my cats." Katsuko leaned down before setting herself down besides him. "I can give you one of the kittens if you want. Or like the spare key." He shook his head. "I wouldn't want to impose. Besides, I don't think giving me a spare key would be safe for either of us." He rolled his eyes and eyed her crutches that were resting on the side of the couch. "Shouldn't you be using those?" "Well, I'm within the confines of my home. Not really much of a distance to travel and since I have no one to take care of me when I need to get stuff, yeah, I should be using them but how else am I going to eat soup on the couch?" She raised an eyebrow at the thought before shrugging. "Unless you wanna stay and take care of me~?" She was clearly teasing him. "Katsuko, why didn't you help your father out? You would've been in a better situation doing that than what you actually did." He looked at her, leaving Beanie to her own devices of playing. "I couldn't figure out how to work the ID machine." She smiled sheepishly. "But that's not the full reason I didn't help him. If I may be honest, you're the reason I didn't do it. I don't know what it was about you, but it was you. Maybe it was how you smiled to show the rest of us that we had nothing to fear? Maybe it was the fact that you can be silly? I don't really know, but betrayed you felt wrong. I'd be willing to take a beating any day over betraying you, someone's who's only been kind to me." His eyes widened and this time, like the times before he blushed, but this time his entire face was red. He didn't know what to do with himself, nor what to say to her in response. Katsuko turned her gaze downwards, biting her lip. "You should probably go. You have superhero stuff that should be done. I wouldn't want to keep you from saving people." She stood up and shuffled to the kitchen. Toshinori must've realized that his mistake wasn't saying anything and sighed. "I'm glad I was the reason for that, but you have a mind of your own. You shouldn't have such high expectations for me, I mean, you have to stop relying on others to make you do things." She didn't say anything, just stared down at the dishes until she heard a sigh and the open and close of a door. When he was gone she grabbed a bowl and threw it, not caring where it hit. The bowl shattered against the wall, breaking off in many different directions. She slid down against the sink and just buried her face in her knees. Katsuko was good at one thing and that just happened to be messing things up. Everything was going so well and she just ruined it. She ruined it just as quick as she had ruined that bowl. Some part of her knew that she shouldn't say the words that threatened to fall from her lips, but they came anyways. "I should have never woken up."